How to Pose for Photographs – My 6 Top Tips

As you’re aware, I’m not a “what I wore today” blogger, but sometimes I post a photo or two of me. I have to take my own photos as I don’t have anyone else to do so. So my camera is on a tripod at about my head height (no lower than shoulder height) and I set the timer, run to position and strike a pose.

Today I’m going to share with you some tips from both my experiences with professional photographers (who put you into a pose) and my own DIY efforts on how to pose for photographs.

1. Gaps are Key in how wide you appear.

If you stand front on to the camera, arms by your side, legs together you tend to look widest. If you want to appear narrower from the front create some gaps by moving crossing your thighs over each other and putting your hands on your hips, or crossing your arms across your body.

Want to make your upper arms appear smaller in a photo? Hold them away from your body a little rather than at your side – holding a drink is ideal for this.

Don’t stand straight on, use angles

2. Angle yourself to the camera
Rather than standing straight on, angle yourself to the camera for a more interesting composition (and often more flattering too). Angle your body and your feet away from the camera rather than straight on.

Push your hips away from the camera so they look smaller

3. What is closest looks biggest
Whichever body parts are pushed toward the camera will look larger. So the pic on the left I’ve angled my hips toward the camera vs the pic on the right where I’ve angled them away.
Don’t forget too to stretch and elongate your body too rather than slouching, this will make you appear longer and leaner.

Left or Right?

4. Which is your best side?

Very few of us are symmetrical in our features (I believe that Christy Turlington is about as symmetrical as people get) so most of us look better when photographed with our face angled toward the camera rather than straight on as we don’t notice asymmetry then. But which side is your best side, and do you angle that side toward the camera?
If you remember my last point, whatever is closest to the camera looks bigger? Well this comes into play when deciding which side to put toward the camera, particularly if one of your eyes is more open or bigger than the other. If you put your larger eye toward the camera, the smaller eye will look even smaller, so in fact if you want to look more symmetrical, you angle your smaller side to the camera as this will make it look larger.

5. How to avoid the double chin
Most of us, when a camera comes near us, in a defensive move, pull our head backwards and chin in toward our chest, which of course doubles our double chins. Remember to push your chin out a little when having your photo taken to stretch your neck and eliminate extra chinage.

Also, take the photo from above not below (or at least your head height) as this will further minimize double chins. Never let anyone take your photo from below if you’re concerned about your chins!

6. Face Touching Tip

If you plan on touching your face, such as leaning on one hand, or framing your face with your hands, the trick is to barely touch your face. Don’t actually lean your face onto your hand or you will distort your face, instead pretend to, just have the lightest contact so that you don’t move your facial skin.

30 Comments

Wow! I needed this advice. Thanks. For the longest time, I took blog photos straight on because I thought I should be brutally honest. But how many times are we actually in that position anyway for it to be a fair representation of what we look like?

A trick for having your eyes open…close your eyes and keep them closed until right after the shutter button to take a picture is pushed. That way right as a pic is being taken of you, your eyes are now open. It works for me at least 95% of the time I’d say and it beats having your eyes shut in every pic!

what a great post, imogen! i've never thought about that gaps/wideness thing at all…which becomes embarrassingly obvious when i look through my own blog's archives. definitely food for thought here. thanks!-brittneyhttp://adayinlifetoo.blogspot.com

Great advise and so well explained! I’ve noticed that models in catalogs/magazines don’t stand straight forward and straight upright, but supposed it was to look less “posed” even though they all pose that way! I hate “do this” advice that doesn’t explain WHY; you’ve explained AND illustrated, which just might be enough to get it through my as-yet unfashionable skull! Thanks so much!